Single parents in Alberta on minimum wage ‘a myth': CFIB

A small business group is calling out the NDP government over claims that a large number of minimum wage earners are single parents. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business calls that a myth.

This after Premier Rachel Notley last week used that as justification for the government’s plan to raise the minimum to 15-dollars an hour. Notley said single parents shouldn’t have to work 50 or 60 hours a week and stop at the food bank two or three times every week to feed their families.

The CFIB says the Alberta government’s own latest Minimum Wage Profile shows 38, 600 people in the province earn minimum wage and fewer than 600 are single parents with children under the age of 18.

The lobby group says if the government really wants to help those people it should exempt them from paying income taxes and focus on provincial support programs instead of passing the buck to business owners and consumers.